LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Sandy Alderson’s verb of choice, in past off-seasons, has been punt. It said a lot about perception and reality. The Mets almost ignored the free-agent market and traded star players. Quite clearly, they were punting on the next season, no matter how their general manager spun it.

That strategy is changing now, and in time the pain might turn out to be worth it. The Mets made some dubious investments while hunkering down in past winters, but they did little long-term damage, if any, to their budget. They have legitimate prospects and reason for optimism.

For $87.25 million, they also have Chris Young and Curtis Granderson for the middle of the lineup and Bartolo Colon (pending a physical exam) for the front of the rotation. The punting unit can stand down. The Mets are trying to advance the ball.

“Hopefully we’re moving in the right direction,” Alderson said Thursday morning, as the winter meetings broke up. He added: “We feel a lot better about our team today than we did two weeks ago. The winter’s not over.”

The Mets still have several holes in their pitching staff and are trying to fill them through trades. Ike Davis is on the market, but shopping him as an everyday first baseman is a tough sell, considering his struggles against left-handers. His defense and power are intriguing, but any team that acquired Davis, who has hit .204 in his career against lefties, would also need a right-handed complement.

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Chris Young, right, should help the middle of the Mets’ lineup.Credit
Beck Diefenbach/Associated Press

With Colon, Dillon Gee, Jon Niese and Zack Wheeler, at least, the Mets believe they will have a respectable front four in the rotation. Colon is a $20 million gamble, but he does have a 2.99 earned run average over 54 starts for Oakland the last two seasons.

“We have three established starters; that’s not quite enough,” Alderson said, without acknowledging the Colon deal. “We have lots of young talent but we don’t want to rely on it entirely, and it also provides the kind of depth we’re going to need through the course of a season.

“So, adding experienced pitching, whether at the top end of a rotation or elsewhere, was an important factor for us. If we’re able to get a quality guy, all the better, because rather than spreading the money over a couple of players, it focuses on quality and still preserves the opportunity for our younger guys to perhaps make the club out of spring training.”

The rotund Colon is one of baseball’s more fascinating characters, thriving with perhaps the worst body in the major leagues. His 2012 drug suspension will always cast doubt on how he does it, but his athleticism is obvious; few others could pull off his success while carrying so much weight.

“Bartolo gets off the mound quick, he holds runners, he does a lot of intangible things that you would think more athletic guys do,” said Athletics Manager Bob Melvin before Colon faced the Pirates in Pittsburgh last July. “To look at him and look at his stature doesn’t give you the total picture on him because he is athletic and he can do some things out on the field besides just pitch. He’s a little against the grain.”

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The Mets are committing $60 million to Curtis Granderson for the next four years.Credit
Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press

Colon had, perhaps, his best season in a decade last year, earning an All-Star nod and a Game 1 start in the division series, although he was passed over for the decisive fifth game of Oakland’s loss to Detroit. His catcher, Derek Norris, said Colon could add and subtract velocity to his pitches; some days he throws sinkers at 91 miles an hour and four-seam fastballs at 96, and other days those speeds are 86 and 90.

Such savvy is necessary at Colon’s age. In May he turns 41, the same age as Andy Pettitte last season, when Pettitte pitched well for the Yankees. Pettitte is one of 20 pitchers in the last 30 years who made at least 25 starts at age 41 or older, a group the Mets want Colon to join.

Wells was 40, with a chronic back condition, when he pitched his last game for the Yankees, in the 2003 World Series. Over the next two seasons, for San Diego and Boston, he was 27-15 with a 4.08 E.R.A., making 61 starts.

The Mets would sign up for that. They hope they have. It is a risk, but they are trying. They are in the game again. The Mets do not look like much more than a .500 team, but when asked if the team could contend, Alderson, at last, could say this and mean it:

“That’s our attitude. That’s certainly our goal for this season.”

A version of this article appears in print on December 13, 2013, on Page B14 of the New York edition with the headline: Body of Work Gives the Mets Hope. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe